198 Dr. D. Sharp on some 



purposes. That the pecuhar capsule and its contents 

 can he looked on as mere evolutions of the simple micro- 

 P3'Ie is almost impossihle, unless some very peculiar or 

 complex function is subserved by them. 



Some time ago I exhibited the egg of another bug to 

 this Society {cf. Proc. Ent. Soc, 1889, p. i). This egg is 

 also of a very peculiar character ; it possesses at one 

 end a series of circumferential projections like small 

 nails partially driven in ; and also a peculiar flask-like 

 structure in the middle, and quite isolated from the nail- 

 like bodies ; these latter are, I have no doubt, micro- 

 pyles, as I have been able to see the canal extending 

 through one or two of them to the interior of the egg. 

 What the middle flask-like object may be I am unable 

 to say, but I think it quite probable that its function 

 may be partially the same as the capsule and cone of 

 the Amazonian Eeduviid ; the wall of the flask repre- 

 senting the wall of the Eeduviid capsule, and a substance 

 that can be dimly perceived within the flask-wall seated 

 at its base being, perhaps, similar in its function to the 

 cone of the Eeduviid bug. Fig. 9, Plate VIII., repre- 

 sents this egg of Piezosternum suhidatum, a being the 

 nail-like objects, and b the flask-like structure. 



Explanation of Plates VIII. & IX. 



Figs. 1 to 8 relate to the eggs of a Eeduviid bug of unknown 

 species, and fig. 9 to the egg of Piezosternum suhulatum {Penta- 

 tomiclce). 



Fig. 1, Plate VIII. — Sketch of the egg-mass of Reduviid liemip- 

 teron with wasp adlierent to it by the wings, and with a crowd of 

 parasitic Proctolrupidce and newly-emerged Reduviids. 



Fig. 2, Plate VIII. — Portion of the same egg-mass, showing the 

 two oiiter circles of eggs, from which Hymenoptera have emerged 

 at the holes marked h ; a, egg situated near the centre, in which a 

 bug is beginning the process of emergence by lifting a cone ; c, 

 cones that have fallen from eggs during the process of emergence, 

 and become entangled in the sticky substance with which the eggs 

 are covered. 



Fig. 3, Plate VIII. — Portion of the same ogg-mass, showing, 

 a, eggs with capsules ruptured by the process of emergence of the 



